Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Chloe's Mama is doing a favor for me today and so Chloe is spending the day at our house. She and Annaliese are double trouble, BFFs, all those things. Caspian is only occasionally the third wheel.

That being said, I don't see nap time in the near future so I am taking my own quiet chilled rest while they play some complicated game involving sand, water, and dogs. Outside, thankfully.

The house has many, many finishing touches yet to come but what's really beyond nice is that it is at this point, less than a year after we moved into an aesthetic hellhole covered in asbestos shingles, a house. Our house. The structure is done, it's just the wee things that will pull it all together left, and we're only 9 months in. I think in another 2 years, time enough for the landscaping we plan to do this fall to soften a bit, it's going to be fabulous. I am really proud of us. We thought this house with its bizzarre floor plan might be a tear-down and instead, for relatively very little money, we've made it the house we've always wanted. It will be never be the American Gothic farmhouse I longed for, but the cedar siding will gray and I can see it being a very whimsical and romantic place in a few years.

Single parenting continues. We've had some fun times-- a lazy cool morning at the farmers' market (kids above), a pool party, family snuggle time, and fortunately for me, the girl I hired to nanny during the day has been a roaring success-- but we need K to come home. I need K to come home. Life is on pause until he does.

In the mean time, there's always the pool.

Caspian at Natalie's wedding took a bunch of pictures. He's got a true eye:

Isn't that hilarious? love that boy. And my uncle Mike too :).

I was surprised this year by how much fun it was to be at the cabin with my family. One room, a loft, K and I sleep on the screen-in porch, no real activity beyond tadpole hunting and a tree swing, but next year we're going to spend a solid week there as a four-some. It's a really lovely place. I was thinking about how the property taxes are kind of expensive, but then on the other hand, what else would I do with that money? I want my children to remember long days at the cabin their parents built with their own two hands, the freezing water, the bathtub you build a fire underneath. Rainy days playing charades and pictionary. The feeling of being completely away.

Now, some tired babies want to lay on the couch and watch a movie. More later.

Friday, July 26, 2013

It is four o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday and i feel a little bit like I've been run over by a truck. So apparently do my babies-- we got home and I put them to bed because that's all they could cope with and out like lights they went.

Vacation can kick your ass.

We landed on Wednesday, got home around 8, started the workday at 7:20am Thursday. Thank Heaven I had the sense to schedule myself a breather tomorrow because I know we couldn't make it to Sunday without some unstructured time.

Annaliese starts full-time, state-mandated school in less than two weeks. I *might* be freaking out. Just a little.

I am quickly speeding through the transition from harried mother of infants and toddlers to the veteran who tells those harried, very-much-annoyed parents to "savor every moment, it only lasts a little while"! The other day I found myself telling the parents of a difficult sleeper that well, Annaliese didn't reliably sleep through the night until she was around three, but you know, it's just a few years of feeling like you're about to lose your s$%& on a daily basis. No biggie. Between that and having to get to work so early that most days sleeping past dawn feels like a lie-in, I'm quickly becoming a super fun person.

Happy though. I love everything I am doing and don't want to change a thing.

Let's talk about my kids at this moment in time:

Amazing. Hilarious. Troopers. Getting pretty good at yes ma'ams and no sirs. They were so heart-achingly beautiful at K's sister's wedding, where they were much-feted flowergirl and ring-bearer.

A whole day of traveling: 2 2hour car rides, 2 2hour flights-- with not one tear, whine, or fight.

Caspian, vegetable and berry picker extraordinaire. Annaliese, ancient-memoried Annaliese, determined must-practice-swimming little girl who danced the night away up in Vermont and ducked behind someone else every time she saw me because she was afraid I'd make her go home. Until she was ready to go home. When she found me and sat on my lap and let me snuggle her like the baby she is, always, to me.

Love these chillens.

K., who seems to get sexier with every passing month, is still up in VT on his annual dad-cation, where he attempts to relax and does a lot of weedwhacking, so I am solo-parenting the last 2 weeks of summer. I can't wait for him to get home but I am trying not to focus on it. It's been a busy spring and summer, and I feel like ok, I've rested, we've played, now he's resting, then he can come home and we can together rock the frick outta this fall. Can't wait.
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Chillun pictures: